The Twitter hack exposes threat to democracy and freedom of expression. This hacking occurred after the hackers used stolen information, which they had hacked from an organization that had been hacked into by Anonymous, to send a message of opposition to the government. It has given rise to many people to call for an international internet surveillance bill to be passed, that would help to track and curtail internet usage and activity online.
It appears that the hack has been carried out by those who use Twitter to organize protests, as this form of communication is widely used by groups that seek political change. The hackers apparently used the stolen information in order to post on Twitter the image of a dead Anonymous member, calling for a revolution against the government. The tweet was immediately removed from Twitter, but not before it had been posted by several thousand people.
The tweet was subsequently deleted and the person who created the tweet has been identified and his account suspended by Twitter, but there is still speculation as to who it might have belonged to, as there were no references to the group Anonymous at all. The hack has been condemned by civil rights groups, as well as by international organizations like the Freedom House.
The Twitter hack exposes threat to democracy and freedom of speech because the tweet calls for people to take matters into their own hands. There are some people who believe that this tweet exposes a lack of respect for human rights, which may be justified if it was indeed posted by an individual concerned about human rights.
If the tweet were genuine, one has to assume that it was the work of the government or some other power-hungry organization. There are already laws that protect bloggers from prosecution for publishing false information and opinions about public figures, but the government has yet to extend its protections to people who use social media to publicly criticize their government or elected officials.
There is also an argument that the Twitter hack exposes the weakness of the government to defend itself against cyber criminals. Because it is impossible for the government to monitor every tweet or blog that a person makes, it is left to private companies to do so. The hack exposes the weakness of the government to protect the internet users, rather than its own citizens, as it makes it possible for someone to hack into a government website and spread false information to the public in order to undermine the government’s legitimacy.
Many governments around the world have a list of sites that are not allowed to be used to access confidential information on the government website. This list is made in order to prevent hacking into the website in order to spread propaganda or information that would undermine the government. However, the list is sometimes too wide for most websites to comply with, and hence the information can be freely accessible to the public. Anyone can now access this list online and find out who is on it and what information it contains.
There are other concerns that have been raised about the extent to which Twitter, one of the biggest sites online, is being used to spread propaganda. For example, an individual who is making a political comment on Twitter could easily be accused of spreading propaganda, even if they are not actually doing anything illegal. The tweet might just be a joke, but it could also contain the name of an official government department, thereby causing embarrassment for the government.
